The line was long last Thursday. It was the last day of early voting. It took just shy of 2 hours to cast my vote.
As I waited, I noticed that most of us looked at our phones but some of us must have been talking because there was a murmur. It was low and continuous with no distinct words. It ebbed and flowed in loudness. Surprisingly, I found it soothing.
Occasionally someone coughed. A few people here and there wore masks.
One man wore a chef’s shirt. Another stood tall, his head well above the crowd. His face looked barely shaven, perhaps this was his first election.
A woman had on a brown tank top, pink sweatpants, and a pink sweatshirt wrapped around her waist. Her brown hair with blonde highlights was smoothly pulled back into one thick pretty braid down her back.
There was a FedEx shirt. A Stripped shirt. Cornrows. Caps. Buns and braids. Plaid shirts, a Dollywood t-shirt, and two matching blue sweatshirts. There was bleached hair, ball caps, and a bandana. There were tattoos, nose rings, a cow costume, and a stroller. A man in a London England sweatshirt sketched in a notebook.
It was a smattering of the people who inhabit our city — people who call Nashville home. People of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages waiting to exercise our American freedom.
We were not rioting. There were no discussions, debates, or derogatory words even though I’m confident we did not vote the same. This is the point, isn’t it? Have we forgotten? We’re not the same — we have different ideas, perspectives, and viewpoints. We’re not the same — we never will be.
Tomorrow and in the days ahead — if there is rioting, if there are violent actions, if there are hateful words about anyone — let us remember the orderly voting line. And consider that maybe those violent, hateful things are not most of us.
Remember that America has always been full of differing opinions, differing perspectives, and differing views. We used to believe wholeheartedly in the freedom of speech — in the freedom of having oppositional ideas. We used to believe that it made us stronger to have these differences. That’s part of what I saw at the library last Thursday — orderly respect for each of our voices to be heard. Let’s remember that.
#mondaysbymidnight
